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(Bloomberg) — Electricite de France SA Chief Executive Officer Luc Remont said medium-term prospects for French power prices have stabilized after the utility overcame technical issues that undermined its nuclear output in the past two years.
“There’s all the electricity we need for now and the years to come,” Remont said Saturday at a conference in Aix-en-Provence in the South of France. “That ensures a stabilized prospect for electricity prices in the medium term.”
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Power prices have receded in recent quarters after jumping to a record two years ago when EDF, Europe’s biggest power producer, had to shut down several of its reactors to repair cracked pipes. The country became a net power importer in 2022 for the first time since 1980, just as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted gas supplies, plunging the continent into a historic energy crisis.
France has since regained its crown as Europe’s biggest electricity exporter after EDF made progress in its program to check and repair reactors, while electricity demand has dropped in response to the power price surge and thanks to energy savings.
EDF’s French nuclear output rose 12% in the first half from a year earlier to 177.4 terawatt-hours, the company said on its website this week.
A new reactor in Flamanville, western France, which is in its commissioning phase, will produce its first electrons “imminently,” Remont said Saturday. It’s a matter of days or weeks, not months, he added.
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